Symptoms of Pregnancy - Physical and Emotional Changes

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms of pregnancy, you might want to take a home pregnancy kit or visit your medical doctor. The symptoms of pregnancy are reasonable well known, however they show up differently in different women. To confuse matters, often what is taken as one of the symptoms of pregnancy is actually a sign of another ailment. As a result, we thought that it was most appropriate, to list the common symptoms of pregnancy and what else they could mean.

Bleeding and spotting

Whilst it is often one of the symptoms of pregnancy, it is also often an early sign of menstruation. You may also experience spotting or bleeding after rough sexual intercourse, if you’ve changed contraception or because of increased hormones.

Delayed or missed period

This is probably the most well known symptoms of pregnancy, however a missed period can be caused by any number of other ailments. In particular, a sudden increase or decrease in weight, tiredness and stress can have an enormous impact. If you are breast feeding you will miss a period, as is also likely when you change contraception.

Increase size of breasts or swollen breasts

During pregnancy, one of the very early physical symptoms of pregnancy is an increase in the size of your breasts. However, this can also happen due to a hormone imbalance or by changing or stopping the consumption of a birth control pill. Many women also experience a growth in their breasts just before they menstruate.

Overwhelming sense of tiredness

This really could be a sign that you are simply over doing it at the moment. If you still feel tired even after a good nights sleep, you should visit the doctor as it is possibly a sign of flu, illness or other ailment.

Headaches and backaches

It is more likely to experience headaches as one of the early symptoms of pregnancy than it is to have backaches, certainly during the very early signs of pregnancy. Headaches are caused by any number of things, such as stress, eye strain, too many stimulants such as coffee or not enough water so that you become dehydrated.

The need to visit the bathroom more often

One of the most frustrating symptoms of pregnancy is the overwhelming need to visit the bathroom more frequently, in pregnancy this is because the uterus is pushing against the bladder. If you are not pregnant it could simply be because of an increase in liquid intake, or more seriously an infection or a sign of diabetes.

Craving for different foods

This could be a sign of stress rather than symptoms of pregnancy. Many of us comfort eat when we are not at our best, rather than craving, that large cream cake might be trying to help us relieve stress, in our minds anyway.

Darkening of the Areolas or the areas around the nipple

Many women think this is one of their symptoms of pregnancy, especially soon after having a baby. This is often a result of the nipples already being in that condition in the first place.